


Tempest In A Teapot

by merkase



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Bondage, Brothels, Business Deals, Canon-Typical Violence, Interspecies Relationship(s), Interspecies Romance, Interspecies Sex, M/M, Merman!Levi, Slow Build, Slow Burn, fancy yachts, giant aquariums, hell yes yachts, hijackings, kidnappings, lost at sea, merfolk culture, mermaid au, merman!Mike, mike needs lots of cuddling from the fam, platonic bro cuddling, platonic group cuddling, probably some other stuff, tags to be updated as story continues, water water everywhere and not a drop to drink, weird and wonderful merman anatomy, yacht cruising, yacht parties
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-16
Updated: 2017-09-07
Packaged: 2018-08-22 20:46:13
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 13,653
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8300423
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/merkase/pseuds/merkase
Summary: Erwin's father dreamed of building facilities where sirens could interact safely with their clients, sheltered from the unscrupulous brothels that sought to profit from the same source of energy that sirens need to survive. Completing the project made Erwin into an international authority on merfolk relations, but this was his father's dream. Erwin's is to protect humanity from another class of mer, which feeds on death and kills so voraciously that they're to be exterminated on site without exception. It's a cause Erwin knows he believes in, but when a starving siren-reaper hybrid shows up at the Exchange with the two halves of his nature in conflict, Erwin must decide how black and white his beliefs really are. It's a decision that could risk more than Erwin's reputation. It could also destroy everything his family has worked for.





	1. Near Death

Mike came to Erwin's stateroom door at an hour so ungodly that it had just about made a full turn back around to reasonable. One unwillingly opened eye proved this to be true when the bleary blue numerals on the bedside clock read a merciless  _ 4:25.  _

Erwin didn’t have to look to know that it had been Mike’s knuckles on the outside of the door and that it was Mike’s bare feet padding over the hardwood towards him. Of all the souls living on the yacht, only two let themselves freely into Erwin’s stateroom and of  _ those _ two, only Mike had the courtesy to knock first. Nanaba didn’t bother. She claimed that if Erwin was doing anything especially private, he would have the good sense to lock himself in. He didn’t think Nanaba had knocked once in her entire time living aboard the vessel. It came as no surprise, then, when the body that rolled into Erwin’s was heavy and male.

“What’s wrong?” Erwin’s voice was sleep-worn, but his mind was stirring awake. They’d been moored at Bayside Harbor for two full days and Mike should not have been starving this way. The merman had all of his human family together--Hanji and Moblit on shore and Erwin and Nanaba on the yacht, momentarily united. Mike had been more content than Erwin had seen him in weeks, soaking up his school’s companionship and warming with an easy, contagious happiness. So he shouldn’t be where he was, shivering into Erwin’s back like he needed some emergency contact. “Where is your mate?”

“Coming. She's on the phone with Hanji.” Mike pulled his knees up, tucking them into the backs of Erwin’s legs and tangling their legs together. He pressed his nose to the back of Erwin's head and his chest swelled as he took a deep breath in, filling his body with whatever it was his schoolmates emitted when he was close to them this way. Affection, maybe. His heart hammered through his own ribs and into Erwin’s.

“You haven't been squabbling at four in the morning?”

“No, it isn't us. It's Moblit.”

Something lurched unpleasantly in Erwin’s chest at the sound of the younger man’s name. If something had happened to Moblit it would certainly be enough to drive Mike to Erwin's bed. He would need to be close to as many of them he could reach. “Is he okay?”

Mike’s arm tightened around Erwin’s chest. “He was almost killed. Hanji has him at the hospital and they're checking him out now. Nanaba’s getting all the details, but we need to go back up the coast, Brother. I need to see him.”

“Of course.” Erwin twisted in Mike's arms, looking into a face he could barely see in the dark. His hands found the merman’s stubbled cheeks and stroked over them with soothing care. “Of course we will. I’ll go to the captain as soon as Nanaba has filled us in. Do you know how bad it is?”

Mike shook his head slowly so as not to dislodge Erwin’s hands. “He’s stable, that’s all Nana said. It sounds like one of the mers grabbed him by the ankle and dragged him into his tank. I don’t know much else.”

“A siren did that? Intentionally?” Sirens fed on sexual energy, not on death. It did not compute. What Mike was describing sounded more like …

“I have no idea. I don’t know if it happened on accident or if the mer really was trying to kill him. Nana is on her way down. She can't get reception in here.”

Erwin didn't get much either. When he looked at his phone in a few minutes he had no doubt it would be sitting there without a single message on it. The wall to wall display tank ensured that. Everything on the yacht between the forward tank and the aft one was a cellular dead zone, so if it couldn't communicate on the boat’s wi-fi network, then it couldn't communicate at all. Erwin's office on the opposite side of the aft tank fared a little better, so it was something about being sandwiched by all of that water that his phone protested.

“Moblit is stable,” Erwin assured the anxious merman. “Don’t make yourself sick worrying.” 

Mike nodded again, but Erwin suspected he was going to worry anyway. He would worry about Moblit until he saw for himself that the man was okay. It was in his genetic makeup to suffer when his school suffered and there wasn’t much any of them could do about it except stay with him and get him to Moblit quickly. Companion-class mers fed on the devotion of their family group. They needed that emotional closeness to survive, but it didn’t feel to Erwin like being fed upon. The energies that were so vital to Mike’s survival were something that Erwin didn’t miss as he gave them away. 

“I’m sitting up.” Erwin let go of the trembling mer and slid up the bed, haphazardly dragging the extra pillow behind himself for a little extra support. When he was settled, Mike turned back into him, his arm falling heavily over Erwin’s lap as he tucked his head into the man’s thigh. This was the position Erwin had identified as the merman’s favorite. He preferred to have Erwin leaning over him, feeling perhaps that he was most secure that way. “I’m sure Moblit will call as soon as they let him. He won’t leave you worrying.” Erwin pushed his fingers into Mike’s sleep-mussed hair and worked on smoothing it out while they waited for Nanaba to arrive. 

She didn’t take long, bursting in so suddenly that both men jumped as she kicked the door closed behind her. “Sorry,” she called into the dark. “That was louder than I intended.” 

“Use the--”

The main lights in the aquarium switched on before Erwin could finish reminding her to use the red ones, and sure enough his squinting eyes caught sight of an alarmed triggerfish darting for cover amongst the rockwork. The tank had been built for housing show mers, which were beautiful and docile--perfect for large displays. They were the only species that could legally be kept and bred, owing to their definitive lack of human intelligence. They sat somewhere on the scale just below harbor seals and they could not take human shape, nor did they give any indication that they could comprehend their captivity. Erwin kept a very sweet female pair in his aft tank, but the one that divided his study from his bedroom was fish only. It didn't particularly matter to him that the show mers were not as intelligent as humans. They still had humanoid faces and it was still unnerving to wake up and find them staring at him, politely awaiting their first feeding of the day. 

“Does Erwin know?” Nanaba asked, dropping her phone on the bedside table and climbing into bed on the other side of Mike. She pressed her lips to the back of his neck and murmured something that Erwin couldn’t make out, though he did feel her hand slide beneath the merman’s worn out night shirt to rest at the center of the chest beneath. 

“He knows what I know,” Mike answered, his voice muffled by Erwin’s thigh. “How bad is Moblit?” 

“He hit his head on the deck when he went into the water, which is why they took him to the hospital, but Hanji got to him in time and he never lost consciousness. They were about to run a CT scan to check his brain for bleeding when we hung up.”

“Is he concussed?” Erwin asked. 

“Remarkably, no. I don't know how he managed that.”

“He can be hard headed when he wants to be,” Mike uttered, still speaking quietly. 

Nanaba snorted. “Nothing was broken, but he's banged up real good. Hanji says he's bruised all up his left side. They're giving him a painkiller and sending him home if his CT scan comes back clean.”

“Mike said a mer pulled him in.” 

Nanaba grunted an affirmative. “Yeah. It was one of the new ones. He’d only been there a handful of weeks.” 

A dark shiver slid up from the base of Erwin's spine to the top, making his skin tingle long after it had gone. He hadn't been able to shake it, despite the passing years and the efforts he'd made for mers. Even finding himself chosen as part of a companion-type’s family group had not erased the memory of black fins and the sound of strong men dying. 

“He was definitely aiming to drown Moblit?” 

“There’s no doubt. Hanji had to take a piece of him before he’d let Moblit go.”

“Did the mer have a problem with him?” Mike asked, though the question earned him a wry chuckle from Nanaba. 

_ “Nobody _ has a problem with Moblit. It's just … Hanji says that the mer is a hybrid--siren crossed with reaper--hold on,” she added quickly, reaching over and catching Erwin by the elbow before he could react. Probably, she had felt him stiffen. Mike certainly had, because he found the other man’s wrist and stroked it like he was soothing an alarmed housecat. “When Hanji interviewed him, he was perfectly sane. You know there isn’t any way a reaper could take human form much less carry on a conversation. They just don't have the presence of mind. Apparently, this one had been feeding as a siren for years, so the reaper should have been dormant.”

“It obviously wasn't dormant enough,” Erwin answered. He sat for a moment in stunned silence, floored by the knowledge of what Hanji had done. 

“They wouldn't have let a reaper hybrid into the siren exchange if they hadn't fully believed that he was safe,” Nanaba told him. “Hanji just doesn't have it in them to turn someone away because they could see a little reaper in them.”

“I know,” Erwin sighed. “That empathy for merfolk is exactly why I chose them to run the exchange, but reapers in any combination are a grave risk to everyone within reach.”

“You don’t have to tell us that their decision was stupid. We certainly have no disagreements on that point. I just believe that Hanji had the best possible intentions, so when we get there ...”

“I think what happened to Moblit was bad enough. There’s no need to say much more about it.”

Nanaba nodded. 

“And you? Will you be okay, Brother?” Mike murmured, all gentleness and consolation. His fingers curled over the man’s wrist and squeezed. “We haven’t seen a reaper in person since we were both wigglers.” 

Erwin brushed his fingers through Mike’s hair, noting that the mer turned slightly to meet his touch. “We’re not children anymore.”

“And he’s been secured,” Nanaba assured them both. “Hanji had one of the supervisors drain off some of the water so he couldn’t climb out. The exchange is safe.” 

“No one has come yet to put him down?” Erwin asked.

“Hanji is waiting for your go-ahead.” 

“They have it.”

“They indicated that they had something to discuss before they make the call.” 

“What is there to discuss about killing a reaper?” 

Nanaba shrugged. “Didn’t say. They probably want to hide him in one of the quarantine tanks and keep him as a pet.” 

“Absolutely not.” Even if it wasn’t highly illegal to keep reapers in captivity, there was no way to feed him without committing murder. “He’ll starve unless he kills and there’s not enough life energy in animals to sustain him.”

“We could feed him your bad employees,” Nanaba quipped, though a nudge from Mike’s elbow prompted them to add, “I’m kidding, of course.” 

“I figured,” the man answered stiffly. He pushed the sheets from his legs and disengaged himself from Mike to stand. “I had better go and alert our captain. If we turn the yacht around now we should be up the coast by sunrise.” He paused by the aquarium to flip the bright actinic lights off before he left, plunging them momentarily into darkness. The red LEDs were eerie when they came on, like mood lighting from a horror film, but they were far less hard on his scaly roommates at night than the actinics. “Nanaba, stop terrifying my fish or I’m putting a lock on my door.”

The young woman stuck her tongue out at Erwin, but knew better than to test his sincerity. For the moment, his fish were safe. It was the Siren Exchange he worried about.


	2. Sea Monster

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erwin is faced with the dilemma of what to do with Hanji's unwelcome addition to the Exchange.

Moblit was waiting on the far end of the dock when Erwin’s yacht nudged carefully into its dedicated slip--the one with the weathered sign marked “Boss Boat Only: All Others Will Be Charitably Donated To Reef Restoration” in Hanji's chicken scratch. He raised his free hand and waved briefly.

“Hey there, Jack Dempsey!” Nanaba called to him. “How's the other guy?”

“Scary,” Moblit answered.

“He's looking lively.” Nanaba had one side of Mike and Erwin had the other and together they guarded him like emotional sentinels. “See there?”

“Yeah, he's the picture of good health,” the merman replied doubtfully, his eyes on Moblit’s bandages. “He didn't tell me they gave him a sling.”

Nanaba rubbed his stomach fondly. “The sweet baby knew you'd already lost your shit worrying and he didn't want to make it worse.”

“Are you sure he shouldn't still be in the hospital?”

“He was properly discharged.” Erwin stood beneath one of Mike's arms, his hand smoothing idly over the merman’s broad back. Like most of his kind, Mike was as hard as granite and built entirely of muscle, but despite his size, he could change direction on a dime in the water. “Hanji did say it looked worse than it was.”

Moblit had been seated on the leading edge of the long dock, his bare legs swinging into empty space over dark, agitated water, but Hanji helped him ease to his feet as the yacht pulled in. It took them a moment and Mike watched that painstaking care with a worried scowl.

“Sir.” Petra stepped up behind Erwin, her hands tucked neatly behind her back. “I'm sorry to interrupt. What would you like me to do about the Jeckyl Island fundraiser? It isn't too late to give notice if you don't expect to make it on time.”

Erwin waved her to the rail so he didn't have to break contact with Mike to speak with her. “Please place it on an indefinite hiatus due to a family emergency. We’ll be taking as much time here as we need. Give the guest list to Eld and have him contact everyone with my apologies.”

The girl nodded politely. “And the venue?”

“We won't be able to transfer the date.”

Petra nodded in agreement. “I believe it will be too short notice to recoup your deposit. I'll have to check my notes to be sure.”

“Hey.” Nanaba reached around Mike to smack Erwin on the forearm, though she barely grazed him and ended up mostly hitting Mike instead. The merman didn't even twitch. “Erwin, if you need to leave, we can stay here until you swing back to pick us up. Would you be okay with that, Mike, if we all stayed close?”

Mike took a moment to consider Moblit honestly. The man looked washed out and exhausted under the yellow dock lights, but he stood steadily on his own two feet without needing to lean on Hanji as the two of them made their way slowly to the slip. “Yes, I would be okay. You should go, Erwin. You need to get yourself back into the news before you propose the Reaper Corps to the UK.”

“I would advise the same,” Petra spoke up. “You want to make a strong showing so you already have an established presence in European media when news of the proposal breaks. That way, even if the UK declines--which they won't--you will already be known to other prospective governments.”

“There is still plenty of time between then and now,” Erwin assured them. “I'm not worried about Europe. What I am worried about is the situation we have right here at home.” His eyes were set on Hanji’s face as they reached to catch one of the lines a crewman threw down to them. How had that interview gone? How had it been possible for a reaper hybrid to sit there across a desk from them and carry on an intelligible conversation? Erwin doubted the doctor’s judgment on occasion, but they were far from easy to deceive. If the hybrid had truly snapped, it had snapped quickly.

There was a gentle lurch as their hull nudged up against the bumpers lining the inside of the slip, then Hanji was kneeling to tie them off onto one of the cleats. Mike was gone as soon as they came to a full stop, turning away from the rail to descend quickly down the back stairs to the first open air deck where he could step off the yacht.

“Moblit.”

“I'm okay,” the man said quickly. “Just all banged up. This is my good side.” He turned into Mike to keep the painful half of his body away from the hug he was obviously anticipating. And Mike did not disappoint. He folded Moblit gently into the lingering sort of embrace that the mer was best known for.

“I'm glad you're well,” Erwin told Moblit. “It sounds like you were fortunate.”

“I'd be dead if Hanji hadn't seen me fall,” the other man agreed. “I don't have any illusions about what my chances were. I was so surprised it happened that I--” He cut himself off, distracted by some passing thought.

“You were caught off guard,” Hanji stated. It sounded like an old argument. “The only thing that says about you is that you didn't expect a mer to attack you.”

Moblit said nothing and looked down at Mike's feet.

“Let's get you someplace warmer,” the merman said as he turned them gently to leave. “You should be sitting down.”

Moblit smiled tiredly. “I was sitting down.”

Erwin reached for Hanji before they could follow, ignoring the defeated sigh that whispered through their lips. “A moment, please.”

Nanaba glanced back at them, hesitating like she wasn't sure if she should stay.

“Go on up, Nanaba, and help the others get settled. I want a look at the hybrid.”

She nodded. “See you in a bit, then.”

Hanji was uncommonly subdued when they waved. “Use the main door. Our apartment is open.” When they turned back to Erwin, their eyes were grim. “I know I misjudged.”

“Which action would you say you misjudged?” Erwin's tone was deceptively mild. Hanji knew to be concerned about that. “Was it your decision to allow a _reaper_ into the Siren Exchange or was it the fact that you didn't tell me you had done so?”

Hanji’s lips pressed together hard, but they didn't break eye contact. They were good about that. At least the doctor didn't shy away from their poor choices. “Both.”

“How long has he been here?”

“A few weeks. I had no intention of hiding him, but I did want to wait. He never fed in all the time he was here and I wanted to see him settling in before you and I fought over it.”

“Because there would be no point in telling me that he was ever here if he left before I found out.”

Hanji sighed. “It sounds terrible when you put it that way.”

“It is terrible. You put everyone in this facility at risk. It wasn't only the staff and the volunteers and the clients but also the sirens themselves that you endangered. Sirens come to us over others because we have an excellent reputation for safety among other things. What do you think would happen if one of them was killed here? Everything we’ve done for mers--the trust we've built, the credentialing service we provide for other brothels--all of that would be destabilized.”

“I signed on with you because I believe in what you're doing,” Hanji told him. “Upholding all those grand ideas of yours is all I ever intended to do and there was nothing different about Levi. He was articulate, Erwin. He was quiet, but reasonable--calm. We drank tea in my office and he stood there trying to pretend that he was looking at my bookshelf rather than tidying it up like he was actually doing. He needed the Exchange’s help.”

“Seeing nothing different about Levi is exactly why I'm standing here having this discussion with you. He is a reaper hybrid, not a siren, and the difference between those two classes is substantial.”

“He was a siren when he walked through my door and asked me for my help,” Hanji insisted, shaking their head. “He was starving. Turning him away would have been a death sentence.”

“Your compassion for monsters almost put your boyfriend in the ground. Moblit nearly died for this, Hanji.”

The doctor pushed a weary hand up their face, their fingers slipping beneath their glasses and knocking them slightly askew. “I know.”

Erwin watched them stand there, wiping at eyes that were drooping and weary. Their characteristic vigor was gone. “Alright,” he said after a moment. “Show me the fish, then.”

Hanji nodded tightly, waving him briskly down the dock and leading the way like he'd never been there before. “We drained the water almost completely out just in case … well. He's very weak anyway. I aimed for his gills when I slashed him so he's having trouble getting air from one side. We lowered it enough that he could use his lungs.”

“How thoughtful.”

Hanji glanced back at Erwin. “This is why I didn't want to say anything until I knew for sure that Levi intended to stay. I hardly blame you for your feelings about reapers and I share those, you know that. I don't see any purpose to their savagery. They're something that doesn't work--something that nature unleashed and cannot take back. But Levi is not a reaper. He's a hybrid. He has all the same faculties that make us human.”

“You’re speaking as if he still does.”

Hanji nodded their head. “He isn't psychotic anymore. You can talk to him if you like.”

“He reverted back?” Erwin asked, frowning as he followed Hanji’s quick strides up the stairs. “That shouldn't be physically possible.”

“He wasn’t far enough over the edge to lose himself. He only just brushed up against it and was able to pull away. He's fighting it every second, but he's starving to death and his desperation is drawing the reaper close to the surface. He’s losing.”

The Exchange had two main entrances. The one on the other side was mostly used by clients coming from their lives on shore. The entrance Erwin and Hanji used was the one primarily for sirens, who came back and forth that way from the ocean. Some of their clients came that way by boat as well, docking in one of several extra slips the facility provided for that purpose. They were equipped to handle traffic coming from both directions, but this was the only door that remained open all night. It was Erwin’s favorite. The large, uneven flagstones turned a welcoming golden-orange under the short footlights that lined the path. The fire pit had been put out for the night and there was no one left sitting around it, but somebody’s music still played softly from the outdoor speakers.

They had a saltwater pool back there, mostly used for event gatherings and private bookings, but some of the sirens also used it as a place to congregate and indeed, there was a small cluster of them hanging around the deep end--probably early risers rather than night owls. They looked enchanting in the dark, their metallic scales catching the pool lights and glimmering like precious stones.

“Welcome back, Mr. Smith,” one of them called from the water.

“Hello, Erwin!”

“Good morning,” the man replied. They’d be gossiping in a moment about why he’d returned so soon, but for the moment they held their speculation. “Do the sirens already know what happened?” he asked Hanji once the glass door was closed behind them. The night guard waved and Erwin waved back.

“I’m sure they do. Many of them were close enough to see what happened and we didn’t hide that we were draining the tank.” Hanji scanned their badge dutifully at the security turnstile and stepped through. “If they don’t already know, it will be around the Exchange by dawn, but we haven’t made an official announcement. I wanted to wait and see what you decided.”

“I left mine on the yacht.”

The guard rolled his eyes, but there was also a faint smile on his face when he looked over at Hanji to say, “It’s like he thinks he built the place, isn’t it?”

“It sure is. I don’t know who he thinks he is.”

“Have a good day, Mr. Smith,” the guard laughed, hitting the manual override to let him through the turnstile.

“You too, thank you. Hanji, what decision of mine are you waiting on? If this mer is becoming a reaper he needs to be dealt with.”

“It isn’t so straightforward as that. I want you to meet him before I explain anything else.”

The hybrid’s tank was towards the front. They only passed a few others to get to his. Hanji waved to a couple of the sirens as they passed, but most of the tanks still had their privacy curtains closed as the mers inside of them slept. The hybrid’s was one of the closed ones, though Erwin suspected that had more to do with Hanji’s wishes than with the mer’s. He didn’t look like he had the energy to wish for much of anything. He looked up at them when the curtain opened, though he barely reacted except to turn and stare blearily into Erwin’s face. He sat in water to his waist, his gill plates closed, though the left one was swollen partially open, the wide, bloody gash beneath it just starting to gum over. The long sheet of blood down his throat was dry, so it hadn’t been bleeding freely for a while.

But that wasn’t the reason the hybrid looked so bad to Erwin. There was something else--something sickly and exhausted about him that was unmistakable in its trajectory. The shadows around his eyes were deep, his lids struggling with gravity and mostly losing. He hardly moved. There was something he lacked--some fundamental vitality. Then, Erwin saw what lay beneath the water.

_“Hanji.”_

Erwin kneeled, turning his head to get a better look at the hybrid’s finnage. This was not one of the beautiful poolside sirens with their glimmering scales and silvery fins. The hybrid was darkly barred in faint, horizontal stripes, his tail built for the side-to-side movement of a shark rather than the mammalian up-and-down of of other mers. Each of the fins along his back was sharply barbed and colored like gunmetal. Faint, blue light pulsed through him, passing along the vertebrae of his spine and down into the tail. There was no way to look at the thing and mistake it for harmless.

“What have you done? _”_

“Phenotypically, he is fully reaper. Mentally and biologically, he is currently a siren. His feeding mechanism is entirely sexual.” Their mouth twisted unhappily. “Or it was. I don’t know what it is, now.”

“I suppose its spines are venomous, too.”

“That would be a logical assumption to make, yes.”

“Christ.” Erwin stood slowly, running a hand through his hair. “You were going to put clients in the water with this?”

“With him.” Hanji sighed. “His appearance is the reason no one selected him. It's likely also the reason he was driven here in the first place. Other mers are afraid of reapers just like we are and soliciting a fullblood reaper could have just as easily gotten Levi killed as save him. He wouldn’t have survived many feedings that way. This was his last resort, I think, but even after clients speak to him, they're still too unnerved to feel safe bedding him. He's just too--”

“Monstrous?”

“Frightening.” Hanji glanced sideways at Erwin. “Moblit and I were going to step in and feed him ourselves, but we were waiting to see if he'd get a client on his own before we resorted to that. Unfortunately, we waited just a little too long. That one is on me, too.” Hanji waved to get the hybrid’s attention and pointed skyward. “Come and speak to him.”

Erwin shook his head in dismay, but followed the doctor obligingly up the back stairs to the glassed-in access deck where the sirens were able to climb in and out of their tanks as they pleased. It had the warm, hazy atmosphere of a spa and smelled faintly of salt and sandalwood. The top of each tank was boxed in by a wide screen that slid shut for privacy and contained both a small wardrobe and a couch upholstered in nautical leather. Most of the screens were still closed, but a couple were open or partially cracked--probably left by some of the early birds gathered around the pool.

Hanji slid the hybrid’s screen aside and stepped through without knocking. “Levi?”

The mer’s head lolled back so he could look up at them through half-lidded eyes, his lips stained red with blood he’d coughed out of his gills. “I hope he’s volunteered to feed me,” he rasped dully. “But I think he hasn’t.”

“No, I’m sorry, Levi. I’m afraid we’ve passed that point.” Hanji smiled weakly, but there was no optimism there. “This is Erwin Smith. He owns the Exchange.”

Levi’s expression didn’t change. “How is Moblit?”

“He’s doing well. He’s plenty banged up, but he’s out of the hospital and it’s all superficial. The worst is a strained shoulder.”

Levi swallowed, licked his lips. “From when he grabbed the deck. I remember.”

“I’m sorry I didn’t realize how bad off you were. I didn’t know you were so close.”

“I didn’t, either. I’m sorry about Moblit.” His eyes moved slowly to Erwin’s face. “Do something with me before I become one of them. I don’t care what.”

“What if I choose to put you down?”

“I said I don’t care what.”

“Just a moment, Levi.” Hanji grabbed Erwin’s shoulder and pulled him back from the edge. “He can be saved.”

“He’s already started transitioning. In all likelihood, he can no longer feed as a siren and he’d starve anyway.”

“There hasn’t been a single study published that investigated the timeline for that process,” Hanji hissed. “Reaper hybrids are rare. We don’t _know_ if his feeding requirements have already transitioned fully.”

“The attack on Moblit wasn’t a strong enough indicator?”

Hanji shook their head vehemently. “It wasn't. Instinct may come before transition. The reaper in him may already be compelling him to kill, but it may not have rewired his body yet to accept energy that way. He could still be a siren.”

“It still can’t be reversed. What’s already happened will likely remain. So we’ll have a siren that we can’t safely feed, that we can’t safely contain, and can’t safely release. He has homicidal tendencies that he can’t control and could go off unexpectedly on anyone at any time. Putting him down now is the safest option for all of us.”

“It’s the _easiest_ option, not the safest. Levi can be safely kept if proper precautions are taken--”

“Like the precautions that were taken here earlier this morning?” Erwin asked seriously. “Or when he first arrived? Get me the boning knife.”

Hanji ground their teeth--something that Erwin rarely saw them do. “Killing him outright wouldn’t be a mercy. It would be murder. He is not one of the rabid, out of control monsters that your Reaper Corps hunts. If you kill him without making an effort to find out how he feeds now, you’re violating every principle your father believed in. And everything I thought _you_ believed in.”

“Hanji,” Erwin said firmly. _“Get me ..._  the boning knife.”


	3. Hangry Hangry Hybrid

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hanji gets just about everyone into trouble, but at least their heart is in the right place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm just trying to write these fics before I die of inexplicable sleep deprivation.

“Erwin.” Hanji leaned urgently over the edge of the ladder, their bony fingers clenched hard around the metal. They looked like they were thinking about following the man into Levi’s tank.  _ “Please _ think about this. There’s no harm in pausing to consider it.”

“Stay up there,” was all the reply they got. Erwin might have added something else, but he’d already dropped the last couple of feet into the water and at that point the hybrid claimed most of his attention. 

“You’re looking at me like I have the energy to come after you.”

“Do you?”

“If you want to wait ten minutes for me to get over there, then maybe.” Levi's eyes fell to the hems of Erwin's pant legs and lingered there. They weren’t rolled up high enough and the fine fabric was already soaked through, but Erwin didn't dare bend over to correct the problem. Not in the water with an unstable reaper hybrid. He tightened his grip on the knife in his hand. 

“You should have taken them off,” Levi rasped, his voice rattling like a bag full of fish bones. “I wouldn't have minded.”

“Move your tail aside.”

“Erwin,” Hanji pleaded softly, “You don't have to do this now. He isn't going anywhere. Please, we can't be this hasty with someone's life. It deserves a proper discussion.”

“That's what we’re doing now,” the man answered, watching intently as Levi's tail rolled to the side like an oversized sea snake. “We’re discussing.” 

“Just discussing?” 

“Pending my conclusions,” Erwin agreed. “And Levi’s actions.” He stepped around the mer in a wide arc, leaving enough space between them to react if all the lethargy turned out to be an act. “Keep your tail over there unless you want me to think you're threatening me.”

Levi's eyes flicked down to the knife in Erwin’s hand. “Sure.”

“I’ll admit that it’s disquieting to see a creature that looks exactly like a reaper behave so calmly.”

“I'm not calm,” the hybrid corrected. “The hunger hasn't gone, just my strength.”

Erwin's eyebrows twitched upwards at the unexpected honesty. “I see.”

“But it can be managed,” Hanji offered. “You still have a will of your own and where there is will there is control.”

“There is no control.” Levi let his head fall back, exposing his throat like an invitation. “I didn't want to kill your friend, but I would try it again. I can’t do anything else.”

“You're not delivering a very compelling argument for your life,” Erwin pointed out curiously. “If living is in fact what you want. Have we been debating a moot point?”

“I wanted to live as a siren, not as a reaper. I prefer dying to becoming a monster.”

“You’re not a monster yet,” Hanji insisted. “If we can put the reaper away and you can keep it there, you can still live as a siren.”

Levi’s eyes slid shut. “You can’t put the reaper away. Don’t try saving me if that’s what you believe. I’ll be fighting for the rest of my life and the reaper will take every inch I give it. I will never be safe.”

Of course, a monster would want to save itself. It would scrabble and fight without fear of the consequences because holding onto its life would be the most important driving force behind its actions. To live, to destroy and eat--that was all there was to a reaper. It didn't fear losing its mind because its mind was already gone. Wherever Levi sat on the monster spectrum, he still had his higher functioning. His personhood was still in tact. Hanji was right about that and it made their situation much more complicated than he’d anticipated.

“We ought to call Merfolk Relations.” But Erwin could hear the doubt in his own tone. 

“He wouldn’t survive that,” Hanji argued. “Look at him. He’s half-dead already. By the time Merfolk Relations prints out all their paperwork he’ll have turned reaper and starved. Or just starved. I can’t think of anything crueler to do to him.”

“I’m sure you haven’t considered the legal mess we’re dealing with. If it’s determined that we’ve broken the law, whether by killing him, keeping him, or releasing him, that law will be  _ federal.” _

“I’ve considered it,” Hanji answered unhappily. “I just dismissed it as something we could work around if we had to. I had assumed you would agree with me that life takes priority over the legal system. Was I wrong?”

Erwin glanced sharply at the doctor and found them scowling furiously back. “You know you weren’t. I just want you to appreciate the trouble you’ve caused. The full, ugly extent of it from start to finish. And I’m certain there are additional issues that haven’t turned up yet.” He turned his intent expression on the hybrid, holding up a hand to demand Hanji’s silence. “And you. Why did you come to the Exchange?”

“I didn't have another option,” was the immediate answer.

“Why now? You've clearly survived for some time without our help.”

“I had a small school before. I never needed anyone else.” Levi spoke like he’d rather not expound upon the matter, which of course made it necessary to ask more questions.

“I don't care about the details,” Erwin assured him. “I just want to know one thing.” When the merman dragged his eyes open to look unsteadily into Erwin's face, the man took that as his cue to continue. “Did you kill them?”

Levi's eyes flashed so furiously that the boning knife twitched to attention in Erwin's hand, ready to lash out. “Of course I fucking didn't,” the hybrid snarled. “They were my  _ family.” _

Erwin didn't point out that people killed their family members all the time for all sorts of reasons--most of them much less logical than becoming a reaper. He believed Levi’s anger well enough that the additional prodding wasn't necessary. He nodded. “Did you know how unstable you were when you walked through the door?”

Levi sneered, his lip pulling back far enough to demonstrate that his little jaw was also in line with the reaper blood. His canines were set in pairs, the forward tooth slightly longer than its secondary counterpart. They would be strong, too, capable of bearing down with just over four and a half times the bite force of a human jaw. “I didn’t come in here knowing I might try to kill someone. I was fully siren.”

Erwin eyed the barbed tail that lurked just beneath the water, capable of moving as quick as a whip if the hybrid wanted it. “Functionally, perhaps.”

“If I wanted to  _ reap _ , I'd have stayed in the ocean. Reapers die in a lot of different ways out there, but they don't starve. I came here to save myself from that, not to trap myself.”

“He did warn me, Erwin,” Hanji said quietly from above. “After several days here he came to me and expressed the importance of finding someone willing to lie with him. We moved his tank closer to the front and I ran a sort of emergency special on him--half of the facility fee would be credited back to any client who chose him. I think it … had the opposite effect.” 

“Of course it did,” Erwin sighed. “There’s no better way to make a client worry than by presenting them with something that looks like a full-blooded reaper and offering them a discount to get into the water with it.”

“I realize that now,” the doctor answered miserably, their eyes on Levi, who had closed his own and was no longer looking at either of them. “We should have raised it and played up his exotic qualities. I took a gamble and guessed incorrectly. The point is, Levi warned me well in advance that he was starving and we tried to take steps. He wasn’t hiding anything.”

“He told you that he was feeling the reaper emerge and you still presented him to clients?”

“No!” Hanji exclaimed. “No, of course not! He told me that he was weakening physically, but he didn’t feel any of the reaper at that time and I believe him. He was perfectly fine up until this morning.” 

“Did you have any idea before today that this was imminent?” But the hybrid didn’t answer. He just slumped there against the glass, breathing raggedly. “Levi.” Erwin tacked the name on awkwardly like it didn’t fit in his mouth. 

The mer’s eyes snapped open as he realized the question had been for him. It took him a moment to think back on what had been asked. “No. Moblit brought our staple foods every morning. I surfaced to take the squid he brought for me and--” He frowned, looking up at Hanji. “Our fingers brushed when he passed it down.”

“Is that important?” Erwin asked them. 

Hanji took a moment to answer, silent and floored. “I … yeah. Jesus, it  _ can _ be. If Levi was hungry enough--critically hungry--the reaper instincts might have registered Moblit’s proximity through direct contact, like a jolt to his system. There might have been enough life energy in that exchange to trigger the reaper’s feeding instincts. It would mean he's telling the truth, that he really didn't get any warning before he snapped.”

“What happened after Moblit touched you?”

“He pulled away to get another piece of squid from the bucket and I … reacted. The thought of letting him leave was unbearable. I had him by the ankle before I thought about it, but dragging him in after that was something I knew I was doing. I just didn’t give a shit.” 

“And now? If I come over there and I touch you are you likely to  _ react  _ a second time?”

“It’s a guarantee.” Levi leaned forward, putting his hand into the water to support his weight. “Look, you don't owe me any favors and you strike me as a man who knows that, but I don't want to rot here. If there is no one to feed from, then kill me already. If you’re worried about your laws then leave me with your knife and I’ll do it myself. I don't want my body doing crazy shit on its own.”

“Can you tell, Levi, if feeding you sexually would still work?” Hanji jumped in hurriedly. “How far have you transitioned?”

The hybrid shook his head. “I don't know. I need to kill your boss so bad it hurts, but I can also tell that he hasn’t come in several days, so it may still be possible for me to feed as a siren.”

“Okay,” Hanji spoke on an exhale. “We can work with that. Erwin, I’ll feed him. I offered him our protection and I failed him. He attacked Moblit and I failed all of you. It only makes sense for me to correct my own mistakes.”

“You’re not going anywhere near him,” Erwin answered simply.

“You heard what he said,” the doctor protested. “It’s possible that he’s still a siren.”

“I think we all know that he will never be anything like a siren ever again. He may still be able to accept energy sexually, but the reaper has surfaced and it won’t be buried.”

“It’s still early. He’s controlling it now. If he’s well fed, if he isn’t in any danger of starving, he’ll be able to keep a lid on the worst of it. Please, Erwin, it’s barely awakened! Look at him, he’s speaking right to you.”

“Yes, and he’s telling me that he isn’t safe. Aren’t you?”

“I’m not safe,” the hybrid agreed dully. 

“Levi! I’m trying to give you a chance.”

The merman looked up at Hanji grimly and did not respond. 

“I don’t see a good option here,” Erwin admitted. “If it’s true that a single touch set you off, then you know I can’t trust you. Clients are entirely out of the question at this point and I won’t ask any of my staff to volunteer themselves for you. Hanji would go through with it, but I won’t risk them that way. They’re too valuable to the Exchange and they’re too personally valuable to me as a friend. They have a slight build and they don’t have any combat experience.”

_ “Excuse me,  _ I have taken a personal defense class.”

“Being able to hit someone in the face with an elbow is next to useless. You’re half his weight and you are not venomous.”

“I’m about to be,” the doctor snarled. “I'm about to be extremely venomous. Erwin, don’t you dare kill him or so help me--” 

“I can’t let you go,” Erwin continued, addressing Levi once more. “I can’t do it legally now that the reaper is active and my own conscience wouldn’t stand for it, either. Every person you killed after I released you would be my responsibility. I also can’t confine you without risking someone else to feed you. There isn’t much else.”

“I have  _ offered  _ to feed him,” Hanji snapped. 

“Not an option.” Erwin held his hand up, requesting silence. Remarkably, Hanji gave it to him, though he could feel the doctor seething from the access deck. “Do you have sex with men?”

“Me?” the hybrid asked. “Do I look like I can afford to be choosy?” When Erwin didn’t respond, though, Levi breathed a weak laugh through his nose. It was short and derisive. “I’d certainly go a round or two with you if I saw you offering.” 

“I’m offering.  _ Once _ , as a trial run. We will renegotiate if it works.” 

Levi blinked once, slowly, quite obviously taken aback. “I don’t need to negotiate anything with you. Keep me from turning into one of those things--however you have to--and you can do anything you want with me.” 

Hanji was openly gaping when Erwin risked a glance up at them, their mouth working like they couldn’t make the words they wanted come out. “You--but with a siren? You’ve never--”

“Step away from the edge of the tank, if you don’t mind,” Erwin told them. “But stay close. If I yell, do what you can.”

“You don’t yell when you orgasm, do you?” Hanji asked bluntly. “I’m not sure I would be able to tell any difference between  _ oh help he’s killing me  _ and  _ oh help he’s actually killing me _ .” 

Erwin stared at the doctor flatly.

“Fine,” they growled, their head disappeared from the top of the tank.

“Pull your tail around so I can see the end.” Erwin hardly fancied having one of those barbs slide into his back, period, much less with the front of his pants hanging open. “And keep it very still. Hands out of the water. Put them over your head.” 

Levi raised a lazy eyebrow--or perhaps it was exhaustion that made him so sluggish. “Are you kinky, then?” His knuckles hit the glass lightly, sliding up until they were arranged loosely over his head. 

“I’m cautious.” Erwin stepped briskly over the tail as it circled around, coming to rest in a rough arc that would allow the man to see what it was doing from the corner of his eye. “I'm about to touch you. Are you ready?”

The hybrid nodded grimly, his mouth thinning to a small line. 

Erwin remained standing as he gathered Levi's wrists in his free hand--first one and then the other--and squeezed, his skin crawling as he leaned his weight into the grip so the hybrid was pinned there against the glass. 

At first, there was little response from Levi except a deep shudder that rolled through the full length of his body. Then the mer’s eyes closed, his face spasming as he went completely rigid, his spine bowing inward as his shoulders twisted. He yanked down on Erwin’s grip, attempting to free himself, and there was an admonition on the tip of the man’s tongue when Levi’s eyes flew open and he lunged, teeth bared, for Erwin’s throat. 


	4. There She Blows

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Erwin and Levi get to know each other in the biblical sense.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This may end up being more "hate-to-love" than I was expecting. Or if not "hate" then "very strong aversion." Or. Well, yeah, it's kinda hate. I think. Wow, if chick-flicks were hella gay and also rated NC-17 with a side of squirmy merman penis that would be this fic.

Truthfully, Erwin hadn't fought many mers, himself--not like this, hovering in the awkward margin between water and air. In his military days he'd harpooned reapers from the relative safety of Coast Guard vessels and he'd pulled plenty of sailors from infested waters. One memorable occasion had involved a shrimp boat and a feeding frenzy. But hand-to-hand, Hanji wasn't far behind him in experience. 

From the waist up, it was akin to fighting an ordinary and untrained man. Most of a mer’s extraordinary strength was concentrated in their tail and as a general rule they were not accustomed to fighting with humans on land. Unfortunately, Levi was not quite so crippled. He’d become a different creature in the blink of an eye, his face transforming into something terrible and monstrous. Erwin’s knee came up automatically as the creature lunged, catching him beneath the jaw and slamming it shut as the deadly head snapped back and hit the glass with a dull thunk. It barely slowed Levi down. 

The hybrid was already moving again like he barely felt any pain, his tail flashing around behind Erwin with the intention of catching him in the back with a dorsal spine. The boning knife flew, swiping out even as Erwin twisted to meet the blow. He moved before he had eyes on what was coming, knowing that by the time he had visual contact he’d already be pumped half full of paralytic venom. The blade connected, sliding into Levi with razor-sharp ease. 

_ That, _ he felt. 

The hybrid opened his mouth and screamed, writhing between Erwin’s feet as he tried to topple the man. It was clear in that moment that if Levi managed to shake his wrists free, Erwin stood very little chance of surviving the attack that would follow and if he went down he was done.

“Erwin?!” 

From the corner of his eye, Erwin saw Hanji appear again at the edge of the tank, but he couldn’t afford to pay them any attention. He turned back to Levi and pressed the bloodied blade to the hybrid’s throat, just over the swollen gill that Hanji had already gotten started for him. “Settle down,” Erwin growled, nudging the sharp edge beneath the inflamed gill plate where the injury would be most tender. Someone different might have been satisfied with Levi’s reaction and called it evidence enough of his madness. Erwin had more than what he needed to justify putting him down. Doing so would have been the safest, most advisable option. 

Only, there was still a siren behind those eyes. Levi was struggling to return, fighting for control of his own mind, and he seemed to be succeeding. His wild thrashing slowed to something more like a belligerent fidget, trying less to overcome Erwin as his battle turned inward. It wouldn’t be an easy arrangement, but if they could feed him there was still something left of him to save. Was there enough? Erwin gritted his teeth, his eyes on the blade of his knife where it disappeared beneath the edge of the gill plate. A fresh rivulet of blood advised that at some point it had made another wound, but Levi didn’t seem to feel it. His head sagged, his wrists hard and taut beneath Erwin’s fingers. The muscles twitched faintly, his body gone terribly still. 

“Settle down,” the man said again. “Do you want to feed as a siren or would you prefer to continue wasting your energy?” 

Levi didn’t answer, but he probably couldn’t yet. Erwin gave him a moment, watching him more intently than he’d watched anything in his life. If the reaper overwhelmed the siren, it would likely happen very quickly. “Move your tail back around,” he said finally. “This is your last chance. I won’t let you wait for me to tire out.”

The hybrid whined pitifully, now quite obviously in pain, but Erwin didn’t dare move that knife from where he had it. It was agonizingly slow watching Levi’s eyes pinch shut as the injured tail circled back around. He dragged it like it weighed several tons and Erwin thought he caught a faint glimpse of darkness in the water where he bled, but looking closer would require that he turn his head.

“How bad is his tail bleeding, Hanji?” 

The doctor’s face was as white as a sheet when they answered. “A fair bit. It won’t be lethal, though. Erwin …” 

“I’m still going through with it.” 

“That wasn’t what I was going to say,” the doctor said. “Do you need me to get someone to help you hold his tail? I can get Mike.” 

“For the love of God, don’t get Mike.” 

“I could come down, then.”

“I’m fine,” Levi rasped, grimacing as his throat moved against the blade. His eyes rose and locked on Erwin’s. “Just don't go. Or let go. You've got to finish it or the reaper won't let you walk away.”

A cold weight dropped down Erwin's throat and sat there like a block of ice in the pit of his stomach. He was in the water with a reaper--or some part of a reaper. It was still infinitely more reaper than he wanted to be with, to be  _ touching.  _ What in hell was he doing? 

“I'm not leaving.” 

Levi nodded solemnly as Erwin kneeled over him, but his gray eyes were as intent as any predator’s. The finnage along his tail perked up, further displaying the shimmer of bioluminescence beneath the water. He lifted his chin expectantly, his thin lips parting.

“Don't do that.”

The hybrid’s mouth closed, his head tipping in confusion. 

“This isn't a romantic encounter.” Erwin settled the rest of his weight over Levi's hips, thinking that at least it would allow him to put some extra weight into his hold on the mer. That tail, especially, would be a little less mobile.  

“You don’t bring knives to all your partners’ beds?” The mer’s eyes glimmered, but it wasn’t humor. “How are you going to do this, then? Are you going to sprout an extra hand or are you going to stare at me aggressively until you have an orgasm?” He looked down at the front of Erwin’s pants, which were still very much put together, and he was right, of course. The man had both of Levi’s hands pinned and the other held the knife to his throat. Something would have to be given up. 

“It’s about time to step away again, Hanji.”

The doctor hesitated. “Alright. I’ll be up here on the couch just … biting my nails.” Their head disappeared once more. 

Erwin waited a few beats before he withdrew the blade, moving slowly and watching Levi’s face for any signs of lurking mania. It did not reappear. The knife went into the water by his knee where he could grab it quickly if necessary, freeing his hand to work on the button of his fly. The hybrid watched him intently and there was hunger in his face, but it lacked the reaper’s blind madness. That was the siren that Erwin was looking at, surfacing hopefully from all the chaos like the sun following a hurricane. 

“Do you plan to keep my hands to yourself?” The mer’s voice was deeper in a way that made Erwin distinctly uncomfortable, the tone itself clearly flirtatious. That wasn't anything he wanted to elicit from this creature. “Will you take them with you when you leave?”

“I don't need them,” Erwin replied, shifting a little so he could slip his hand into his trousers and past the slit in his underwear. His cock was limp and disinterested, but he gave it an encouraging squeeze as he pulled it free like that could reassure the poor thing that everything would be okay. “You don't need them either, for now.”

“Are you sure?” Levi asked, flexing his hips so that they rose between Erwin's legs and rubbed along his balls. “The rest of you doesn't seem to agree.”

“We’re not lovers,” Erwin reminded him again. “There's no need for you to touch me.”

The hybrid sighed, apparently disappointed. At least when he replied that time he dropped the pretense of flirting. “I need to come too if I'm going to get the most energy out of this. You're sitting on my vent so you might feel my dick.”

Erwin's stomach did an alarming little twist as he rose quickly onto his knees, noting that Levi did not seem at all impressed with his aversion. He ignored the mer’s exasperation, taking himself in hand and giving an experimental stroke. 

He thought he probably twitched a little, but he wasn't sure. 

Levi groaned. “Your dick is going to drop off before we get anywhere with this. There's a mild aphrodisiac in my saliva. If you kiss me I promise to make it as unromantic as I can.”

Erwin was aware of the chemical properties of siren saliva, but he hadn't thought of it in association with Levi, who resembled a siren about as closely as a shark resembled a seal pup. He eyed the merman’s mouth with more than a little skepticism. “Does it still work?”

“I don't know. It doesn't have any effect on myself.”

Erwin tried a few more strokes, adding a slight twist of the wrist to the end just the way he liked, but his body replied unenthusiastically, twitching feebly to life like it would rather not be bothered. Meanwhile, Levi watched him blandly. 

“Alright,” Erwin sighed. “Go ahead and kiss me, then.”

“You kiss me,” the merman grumped. “I can't reach you like this.”

Thinking that was precisely the idea, Erwin leaned in and met the hybrid's lips with revulsion rolling through him like a high ocean swell. He had a brief impression of chilly skin and salt before Levi's mouth was opening beneath his and his chin tipped, his slick tongue plunging into Erwin's mouth and scraping a thick glob of saliva onto the back of the man's teeth before retreating with a potent glower. Erwin jerked back so hard he almost lost his grip on the hybrid's wrists, but he managed to stop himself from spitting. Just barely. 

“How was that?” Levi asked smugly. “Unromantic enough?”

“You  _ spat  _ into my mouth.”

“I wouldn't want you to mistake us for lovers.”

“I assure you, there is little danger of that.” Erwin took himself in hand with the intention of trying again, though he frowned when it elicited only the barest fizzle of arousal. 

Levi rolled his eyes--a surprisingly human gesture. “It isn't instant. Have you really never fed a siren? You?”

“No. But that’s irrelevant.” 

“You’ve never been curious?” Levi asked. That time, when his hips rose, there was a responding interest somewhere deep in Erwin's abdomen. “Hanji tells me that your facilities stay booked solid. You see that every day and you don’t wonder why?”

“I know why.”

“You may have an inkling,” Levi purred, and that tail was definitely getting something out of him as it moved, but it also made it necessary for Erwin to support some of Levi’s weight as he pulled down on Erwin’s grip to lift himself. “If you sit down I can show you the rest.”

Sitting did sound easiest. Erwin glanced down doubtfully, but all he could see was his own cock standing at half-mast, swelling slowly, but not in a way that seemed very promising. It would take a while even with Levi’s saliva gliding through his system and Erwin had more than one reason for wanting the matter done with promptly. “Don’t try to enter me.”

“You’ll beg me to, eventually.” 

Levi exhaled as Erwin’s weight settled back over him, though the man almost jerked back up again immediately. The hybrid was as aroused as he promised he’d be, a fair bit of his cock already free from its vent and trying eagerly to nestle into the seam of Erwin’s ass. It was slick and muscular, pressing hard enough against the man’s opening to fire a jolt of white heat straight through him. That tiny spark was the only thing that held him in place, or else he’d have certainly recoiled in sheer revulsion. A merman’s penis was prehensile, allowing a range of motion completely alien to humans. Erwin had been expecting that, but feeling it slipping around one side of his balls and curling to grasp them was another matter entirely. He sat frozen and tense on the hybrid’s lap, barely breathing. 

“Back up a little,” Levi suggested. “I can’t reach you properly.”

Erwin shivered with the understanding of what the mer intended to do. Equally horrified and turned on, he moved as if he’d set his body on autopilot, easing back just a little and allowing Levi’s cock to wind fully around him. Revulsion didn’t stand much chance of prevailing after that. Erwin’s back arched, nearly pitching him forward with the force of his arousal. Only his grip on Levi’s wrists prevented their foreheads from meeting violently and unintentionally. Erwin didn’t have anything to be ashamed of where size was concerned, but even after twining fully around his erection Levi’s cock was large enough to cover him completely. Erwin had a moment to appreciate that fact before the mer  _ squeezed _ and all those thoughts flew straight from his head. 

“Do you need to kiss me again?” the hybrid asked, his voice low and smug. He knew full well what the answer to that was. “I wouldn’t mind.”

“I don’t,” Erwin gritted out, his voice breathy and strange. The hybrid set up an unusual pace, pressing up with his tail to nudge Erwin’s testicles each time that ludicrous cock pulsed around his erection. It took an embarrassingly short amount of time for his own hips to respond, picking up Levi’s rhythm and thrusting to meet it.

“Ah,” the hybrid breathed. That time, when he pulled down on Erwin’s grip it was deliberate and slow, more hedonistic than anything else. His chest swelled outwards as his back bowed against the glass, his eyes closing. “Shit--it’s working--” 

“You’re feeding?” Erwin asked 

“Y--” the hybrid tried to answer. He squirmed, his eyes pinched shut as his coordination dissolved and his movements became frantic. “I can feel you. I can feel your--” But Erwin never got to find out what Levi felt. His words dissolved into a long, desperate moan. He sounded agonized and starving, very nearly sobbing with need. He pulled down again on Erwin’s grip, hard enough that time that his wrists slipped free of the man’s grasp. Erwin tensed, half-expecting a blow as his hands leapt to follow, but Levi only pressed both his palms to the man’s chest, smoothing around his ribcage and tightening. His fingers dug hard enough into Erwin’s skin to bruise as he tried to pull the man closer, mewling loudly enough that from where they sat up above, Hanji wouldn’t have any doubt as to whether or not the feeding was successful. 

Erwin caught one of Levi’s wrists and broke the death grip he had on him, but those fingers had become clingy and they caught Erwin’s hand and forced themselves between Erwin’s, twining through and squeezing. “Fuck, oh fuck, please come,” the hybrid begged. “Please come. You’re ready, let go.”

Levi’s knuckles hit the glass for the second time that day as Erwin caught himself on the side of the tank, flexing against the mer while his body convulsed. He bit back any sound he might have made, even as his orgasm hit him like a freight train. The water warmed around him and it took a moment to realize that Levi was coming right alongside him, his cock pulsing around Erwin’s as he released everything he had into the bottom of the tank. It went on far longer than a human orgasm--so long he thought it was impossible for one tiny mer to have so much in him. Erwin was too lightheaded to worry about it, or what he was sitting in, still leaning breathlessly against Levi’s wrist. He only gave himself a moment to recover, slipping free of Levi’s grasp as soon as he felt the mer slacken, his muscles going lax as he slumped back into the side of the tank.

“You don’t want to cuddle?” the hybrid murmured. He looked as dizzy as Erwin felt, but when his eyes opened the pupils were still blown wide with arousal. There was something else there too--something keen and interested, like Levi was only just seeing Erwin. The man wasn’t sure he liked it. “Thank you,” he added, and it was sincere.

“I’ll be back later to see how it worked.” 

Erwin took the knife and stood to make his retreat.


	5. Between A Rock And A Hard Place

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There isn't a whole lot they can do with Levi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This fic has also suffered the brunt of my Real Life Sucks issues and it hasn't been updated in a while, but fear not! It is not abandoned. Thanks for your incredible patience and kind words, guys. You're all the bee's knees! <3

The group was so quiet that Erwin could clearly make out the soft hum of Hanji’s ancient table lamp from across the living room. Occasionally the light would flicker because the bulbs always sat a little too loosely in the socket, but it had come from a long-dead family member and Hanji valued it for more than its ability to function effectively. The doctor was the only one present who did not look like they’d just been punched in the side of the head.

_ “Why?” _ Mike demanded finally. “I don't understand.”

“It was a fact-finding exercise,” Erwin explained again. They seemed more hung up on the part of the story where he’d fed Levi. His decision to let a reaper hybrid live in the first place didn’t shock them to quite the degree that it should have. Only Mike was appropriately baffled on that point. “If he can still feed as a siren, then we have more questions to ask ourselves before killing him outright.”

Hanji nodded firmly, arms crossed over their chest like they still expected a fight. Perhaps they were right to. Mike, more than anyone, knew Erwin’s feelings on the subject of reapers. He’d been there to drag Erwin from the heaving crimson sea. And more than that, he’d seen the aftermath of those events winding like deep veins through every major decision the man made for years. And for just as long, reapers had featured strongly in his bloodiest nightmares--the ones he woke up from and left the bed for, unable to return. Mike’s utter incomprehension was understandable. 

“And … the feeding,” Nanaba asked cautiously. She and Moblit had Mike wedged between them on the sofa, Moblit tucked gingerly into the merman’s side with several blankets stacked around him. Only his head was visible where it nestled into Mike’s broad chest and his delicate cheeks were pink with embarrassment--or that might have been all the heat. “I assume it took?”

“He was able to accept the energy, but whether or not it was enough to sustain him still remains to be seen. I’ll look in on him later. Until then, I’m sure I needn’t tell anyone how important it is to stay away from him.”

“He’ll need to be fed,” Moblit said quietly, turning even redder for some inexplicable reason as he added, “I mean, his staple diet. Not … you know.”

Nanaba’s laugh was a welcome addition to the solemn atmosphere. “You work in a fancy brothel, Moblit, and you’re still as pure as the driven snow.”

“I’m not,” he murmured, half of his face disappearing behind the folds of a blanket. 

“I’ll go with Hanji when they do their afternoon rounds,” Erwin cut in before the teasing got them completely off-track. He raised a hand when Moblit moved as if protest. “You’ve earned the day off. More than that. Just let Mike coddle you for a while.”

“We’ll start a new series on Netflix,” the merman promised resolutely, looping an arm around Moblit’s shoulders and pulling him back into his chest. “And I’ll help you shower. You smell like hospital and your hair has salt in it.”

“I really don’t need help--” Moblit sighed. “Fine, but you’re staying outside the stall.” 

Mike shrugged. Nudity within a school wasn’t something he saw any reason to shy away from, but he’d grown accustomed over the years to their various comfort zones and he respected them even if he thought they were odd. Most of their group had grown somewhat accustomed to Mike as well. There was a time when Moblit would have squawked in horror over the suggestion of a friend helping him step into and out of the shower. He probably still would if it were anyone else. 

“What are you going to do in the meantime, Erwin?” Nanaba asked. 

The man glanced at his watch before answering. “Lyra and Josephine normally eat around this time. I’ll head back to the yacht and feed them, then I’ll probably work on rearranging my schedule for the next few weeks.”

“I’ll go with you, then. I need a few more hours of sleep after all the excitement.” She bent to kiss Mike, ruffling Moblit’s hair as she straightened. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

“Thanks, Nana.” Moblit looked up at Erwin then, clearly hesitating over his next words. “And thank you, as well. I … didn’t want to see Levi die. I’m glad you’re giving him a chance.”

Erwin’s eyebrows twitched upwards in surprise. The other man’s support was--well, it shouldn’t have been surprising, but it was. Moblit was the one who had almost been killed and yet, somehow, he still didn’t think the hybrid ought to be destroyed. There was something that he wanted to save in spite of his anxiety and, perhaps, his better judgment. That simple gratitude for Levi’s life almost made a greater impression on Erwin than Hanji’s impassioned arguments. The man nodded. “I can’t promise it will end well, but I will try.”

A tentative smile. “I know you will.”

Nanaba was silent as she followed Erwin out of the apartment, past the guard station. The sun had peeked over the horizon and the ocean was shot through with brilliant color. Erwin slowed to look at it as they passed the saltwater pool, offering more waves and polite hellos to the merfolk gathered there. The atmosphere was different. There was some concern, yes, but also a strange undercurrent of excitement that Erwin couldn’t riddle out. Rumor must have been spreading throughout the Exchange, though he couldn’t fathom what content would put such coy expressions on the faces they passed. They’d have to make an announcement that afternoon, explain what had happened before the rumor mill got too agitated. 

“Have you thought about what you’ll do with Levi in the long term?” Nanaba asked finally. She was just ahead of him on the wooden stairs leading down to the dock, raising her voice to be heard over the wind. “Even if he can feed like a siren without wasting away to nothing, his reaper instincts will never be dormant again. He’ll always be tempted to kill people whether or not he can actually feed from them. Did I understand all of that correctly?” 

“You did.” 

“Then … if he lives, what can you  _ do _ with something like that?” 

Erwin sighed, raking his fingers through his windblown hair. “I don’t know. He doesn’t want to be a reaper and he’s willing to die before becoming one, but I didn’t get the impression that death was his first choice. He told me that if I can prevent him from becoming a monster he’ll permit me to do anything I want with him.”

“It doesn’t sound like he expects to have much of a life.” 

“He probably won’t. I can’t kill him in good conscience if his mind is still his own, but I also can’t release him the way he is. You understand why.” 

“Yeah.” Nanaba hopped over the rail rather than wait for the gangplank, so Erwin went ahead and followed suit, politely ignoring Auruo’s aborted attempt to help them aboard the swaying yacht. 

“Have the girls eaten?” he asked the crewman instead. 

Auruo shook his head quickly. “No, sir. I waited for you. Did you want me to go ahead and feed them?”

“No, I’ll take care of it. Thank you. If you want to go ahead and bring their breakfast up, though, I won’t be opposed.” 

“Of course. I’ll meet you in the saloon, sir.” 

“I understand why you can’t release him,” Nanaba continued as if there had been no interruption. “But you can’t do much else with him, either. If you keep him at the Exchange, you’ll have to assign someone else to his care while you are elsewhere. If you bring him with us, you’ll have a reaper hybrid on  _ full display _ in your office and bedroom, not to mention the deck access where any fundraiser guest or dock worker can look straight down and see him from above. There’s no sight barrier at all on deck.”

“It’s possible that in time, he will be stable enough for Hanji to take over feeding.” Even as he said it, though, he was frowning. The idea didn’t sit well, considering how abruptly the hybrid had snapped on Moblit  _ outside _ of a feeding situation and then how violently he’d reacted to Erwin’s touch. That impulse may dull as his hunger settled, but the potential for violence would always be there. It would never be  _ completely _ safe to feed him. Not for anyone. Erwin opened the door and gestured for Nanaba to precede him into the bright saloon. “No, nevermind. We’ll likely have to hand him over to Merfolk Relations.”

Nanaba snorted. “And what precedent do they have? I’ve never heard of anyone keeping an unstable reaper hybrid. They’ll likely take one look at him and decide they don’t want to put any of  _ their _ employees at risk either. I think the question of his remaining humanity matters even less to them than it did to you when you first found out about him. They’re too large an organization to make decisions based on their feelings.”

“So you think they’ll kill him if we hand him over?” He had to admit, it did seem likely. 

Nanaba shrugged. “I don’t know what they’ll do. I’m sure it will be a great big pickle for them just like it is for us. But if you do hand him over, you have to accept that it’s a possibility. Would you be okay with that?”

Erwin blew out a hard breath as he considered it. The saloon was a good place for all kinds of difficult mulling. It was fashioned in dark, cozy wood, its leather furnishings more reminiscent of a mountain cabin than a luxury yacht. His decorator had been good, though, and the room still had a decidedly nautical twist to it--just enough to remind him that he was on a yacht, but not enough to hit him in the face with it. The steamer trunk that functioned as a coffee table had stickers and stamps from all over the world, some that came with the trunk and some from places Erwin had actually been to. The decorative books were all theme-appropriate. He’d never flipped through the one on yachts, but the fully illustrated copy of _The_ _Ornamental Mer: Color Morphs and Finnage_ actually had bookmarks on some of his favorite pages. The thick blue rug was made for bare toes and it matched the nautical-themed throw blankets that Gunther kept trying to _artfully rumple_ over the back of his chairs and loveseat. The sofa backed up to the display tank so he could either look up at Lyra and Josephine or gaze thoughtfully out to sea or roll over on his side and watch television on the elegant flat screen. It was a good place to think, or not think, depending on his mood.

Josephine was awake when they stepped into the room, perking immediately into a full display as she swept her fins out and flared her gills in excitement. She was a blue marble with absolutely gorgeous finnage, her coloration ranging from the lightest pastel blue to a rich, metallic indigo. As Erwin approached, she twisted in the water and darted along the glass, stirring up the water and waking Lyra, who had been hovering quietly at the bottom. On seeing him, though, her fins also blew out and she pushed off to join her mate at the glass in a swirl of sand. 

Lyra was a rare koi morph, adorned in truly magnificent patterns of red, black, and white. Both of them could stop an ornamental show in its tracks, and had done so at more than one venue. Erwin’s father used to enjoy showing ‘the girls’ when they were still wigglers and even then, they’d taken home prizes. Erwin wasn’t as much a part of show culture as his father had been, but even so he was proud of them. He just preferred to admire them on a much more domestic scale.

“Good morning.” Erwin couldn’t help smiling at their enthusiasm. Ornamentals were bizarre creatures, half the size of an adult human and so eerily fish-like in spite of their humanoid faces. They lived with the sort of blind joy that Erwin had only ever seen before in puppies and dolphins, tumbling over each other in a companionable tangle of fins to greet Erwin and see if he had food. For all their glee, however, they never smiled unless they were interacting with someone who was making faces at them and even then they didn’t comprehend its meaning. Ornamentals communicated mostly through chemical signals released into the water column and low-frequency clicks that had nothing to do with echolocation. For some emotions, like excitement and aggression, they displayed fin, but for whatever reason they had not evolved to use their faces like the companion and siren classes did. 

Erwin kicked his shoes off and climbed onto the sofa to see them, rolling up his sleeve as he went. The pair was hand-fed, but Erwin still tried to put his hands in the tank as often as he could. His ornamentals didn’t bite hard anymore, but their tiny teeth were like needles and Erwin moved the girls around a lot, transferring them from the smaller display on the yacht to the larger salt pool at his home when they were docked there. Keeping them hand-tame was a necessity. 

Lyra bobbed against him as he reached into the water, her wide-eyed face nudging into his palm. Her hands came up to wrap lightly around his wrist and he expertly dodged an exploratory nibble, pulling his hand out of her grip. “No, Ma’am.” She clicked at him and reclaimed his wrist more carefully, licking instead as she tried like always to determine whether or not his hand was something edible. Or maybe she just liked the texture of his skin. Ornamentals did a lot of interacting with their mouths. Josephine was more tactile, flashing her slippery tail along the length of his arm and turning quickly to do it again. Her delicate fins trailed through his open fingers as she drew circles in the water with her long body.

“Grub’s here,” Nanaba noted from behind him. “Thanks, Auruo.”

“It’s my pleasure,” he answered swiftly. “I’ll be back later for the container if you prefer to leave it.” 

“Thank you.” Erwin took several pieces of raw fish from the small plastic tub Nanaba offered and closed Josephine’s portion in a fist. He didn’t quite trust Lyra the way he trusted the marble, watching her a little more closely than he did her mate. He encouraged Lyra to use her fingers because she could get a little indiscriminate with her mouth, unlike Josephine who could pretty much eat without direct supervision. She stabilized Erwin’s wrist with both of her webbed hands, gently working the slippery meat from his grip with her teeth and tongue as she turned his hand to work at it from different angles. He tried to make feeding time a bit of a puzzle and Josephine threw herself into the task with cheerful dedication, but Lyra hadn’t worked out the game yet and simply guzzled what she was given whether Erwin’s fingers were in the way or not. They each got a second handful of fish, then Erwin upturned the rest of the container into the tank. Fresh clams sank like stones to the bottom, providing a puzzle of their own for strong fingers and jaws. The ornamentals immediately lost interest in Erwin, diving happily after their new prizes and leaving the man to wipe his hands on the towel Auruo had brought with the food.

“Lyra is getting better.” Nanaba dropped into one of the big, squashy chairs, upsetting the carefully careless drape of Gunther’s blanket arrangement. “You didn’t even need first aid this time.”

Erwin made a face. “She isn’t that bad.” Then, to Nanaba’s raised eyebrows, “She had a lot of pent up energy the morning that happened. I’d forgotten to put their toys in the tank.” He picked up the remote and flipped on the television, searching for one of the cartoon stations that the ornamentals preferred. Hanji said it was the cheerful clamor and vibrant color that drew their interest in particular and the doctor must have been onto something because they never expressed much interest in other stations. Except music channels. They did enjoy those and the deeper the bass, the better. Lyra sometimes replied to electronic bass drops with excited clicking that was comical to watch.

Nanaba crooked a leg over the arm of her chair, content to wait for Erwin to finish thinking as she watched the television blandly. Erwin perched on the edge of the sofa, his toes curling into the plush carpet as he looked out at the glimmering water and considered their limited options. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I use a lot of betta references for the ornamental mers, especially for the color morphs. A lot of people breed gorgeous fish to enter into shows and in this universe people do the same with mers, so the ornamentals come in every color combination under the sun with an assortment of acceptable fin types. If you want an idea of how I envision Erwin's girls, you can see Josephine [here](http://merkase.tumblr.com/post/165097030899/i-used-betta-color-morphs-as-a-reference-for-the) and Lyra [here](http://merkase.tumblr.com/post/165097215589/i-used-betta-color-morphs-as-a-reference-for-the). Both of these link to my tumblr.

**Author's Note:**

> For updates and things, keep an eyeball on [my tumblr](http://merkase.tumblr.com). This fic will be tagged, "TIAT" over there. Thank you for reading!


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